Printing mechanism



Mrch 14, 1939. A. E. GRAY PBINTING MECHAN I SM Filed July '7, 1936 4 Sheets-Sheet l 1 =s 1 [l ilk v :1f Ii 16 1V 5:/ si,

l "l :if -`lNVENTOR a@ TTORNEY March 14, 1935.

A. E. GRAY PRINTING MECHANISM Filed Juiy v, 193e 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 'WENT R BY ATTORNEY March 14, 1939. A. E. GRAY PRINTING MECHANISM Filed July '7, 1936 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 INVENTR ATTORNEY March 14, 1939. A. E. GRAY 2,150,218

PRINTING MECHANISM Filed July 7', 1936 4 sheets-sheet 4 Finse.

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP. 310 FIFTH AVENUE CODE N0. NEW YORK CITY l00065 0/0 Jl-IN DOE sas so aoxEs c/mns 1.50 45.0 i036 27 BOXES CARDS 1.50 40.5

ATTORNEY Patented Mar. 14, 1939 f l UNITED vSTAT-151s PATENT oFFlcE PRINTING MECHANISM Alvin E. Gray,` Binghamton, N. Y., assignor to International Business Machines Corporation, New York, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application July 7, 1936, Serial No. 89,283 2 Claims. (Cl. 101-93) This invention relates to printing machines cluding carriers I2 slidably mounted on each of and more particularly to machines of the record which is a type head I3. Each type head has card controlled type. type elements I4 slidable horizontally therein, The principal object of the invention is to prowhich are adapted to print the numerals 1 to 9 5 vide an attachment for printing tabulators for and the letters A to Z. The type elements are controlling the operation of the printing hamarranged as indicated in Fig. 1 with the digits mers. In printing tabulators the differentially interspersed among the alphabetic characters. positioned type bars are arranged to connect in- The carrier I2 is positioned by a stopping pawl dividual type hammers for tripping when the I5 which is designed to engage the teeth I6 in type bars are positioned to present certain charthe carrier. This engagement will select the digit 10 acters to the printing line and to prevent the type for printing. To select the alphabetic type selection of the hammers when other characters the type head I3 is displaced with respect to the are at the printing line. According to the present carrier I2, one, two, or three steps to select the invention mechanism. is provided under control various alphabetic type. The manner in which of a special perforation in the record card for this selection is effected is fully explained in the 15 causing the tripping of all the hammers regardpatent referred to and since a detailed explanaless of the positioning of tthe various type bars. tion of the manner in which the type bar is po- Various other objects and advantages of the sitioned forms no part ofthe present invention, invention will be obvious from the following parsuch explanation need not be given here. .20 tcular description of one form of mechanism em- Explanation will first be made of the manner bodying the invention or from an inspection of in which the tripping of the hammers to take an the accompanying drawings; and .the invention impression from a selected type bar is normally also constitutes certain new and useful features eiected after which the invention will be more of construction and combinationof parts hereinparticularly described. after set forth and claimed. Associated with each type head I3 is a print- 25 1n the drawings: ing hammer Il which is normally held in the po- Fig. 1 is a sectional view taken through the sition shown in Fig. 1 by a latch I8 and is urged iype bar and hammer operating unit of a tabulaby a spring I3 into printing action. The latch tor. l I8 has pivoted thereto, at 20, a hook 2| having Fig. 2 is a position view of parts shown in Fig. a tail 22 in engagement. withV a lever 23 which 30 1, showing the improvements of the invention in is pivoted at 24 to the frame of the machine. another position. The rightwardly extending arm of lever 23 lies Fig. 3 is an outside view of the printing secin the path of a block 25 (see Fig. 6) which is tion of the tabulator showing certain control and secured to the carrier I2. When the type bar drive connections. is elevated to present any but the three lower- Fig. 4 is a detail view looking in the direction most type elements I4 to the printing line, the 0f lines 4-4 0f Fg- 1 and Showing the Column hook 2| remains in the position shown as block spitting mechanism.. 25 does not rise sufficiently to engage lever 23. Fig. 5 is an end velevation looking from the left After all the type bars have been positioned, in Fig. 1. the bail 26 which is secured to shaft 21 is rocked 40 Fig. 6 is a detail View showing the manner in clockwise after the bail 28 which is secured to Wh'ch the type bar COIlrOlS the Coupling 0f the shaft 29 has been rocked in the same direction hammer latch. and those hooks 2l which lie in the path of bail Fig. '7 is a fragment of a record card. 26 will be drawn toward the leftJ to draw their Fig. 8 is a circuit diagram. respective latches I8 away from the latching 45 Fig. 9 is a timing diagram of the essential cirarms of hammers I1 and the llatter will consecuit controlling devices. quently be urged against the type elements by Ffg. 10 is av specimen of a record. springs I9. The mechanism for rocking the bails The printing mechanism may be of any suitis shown in Fig. 3 wherein shaft 21 has secured abe formvl but for convenience may be assumed thereto an arm. 30.which has slotted link connec- 50 to be-substantially identical with that described tion 3l to a bell crank 32 secured on shaft 29. in the pat-ent to A. W. Mills, No. 2,016,682, Through a link 33 the bell crank 32 is connected gantcd October 8, 1935.. This mechanism into an arm 34 secured'upon the shaft 35. The

cludes the usual platen Ill (Fig. 1) and a numshaft 35 also carries a double-armed cam fol- 5 ber or vertically movable type bar assemblies inlower 36 whose rollers engage a pair ofcomple- 55 mentary cams'l carried by the drive shaft 38 of the machine. This mechanism is theusual construction for operating the hammer restoring and latch tripping balls of the machine.

If the type bar rises to present'any of the three lowermost type or the blank position to the printing line, the upper end of the block will engage and rock the arm 23 to shift hook 2I to the position shown in Fig. 6. It will be apparent that tripping of the hammers of type bars so positioned cannot take place through the related hooks 2I. These lowermost type positions generally represent zeros or special characters. In the present case, the lowermost type element is termed the alphabetic zero and the uppermost ls termed the numerical zero, the one being utilized when the machine prints alphabetic characters and the other when the machine is set for printing numerical data only. When it is desired to effect printing from these lowermost type elements, the so-called and well known column pling member of the hundreds latch splitting devices are employed. The column splitting mechanism is substantially identical with that described in the Peirce Patent No. 1,867,026, granted July 12, 1932. A coupling member 40 (Figs. 1, 2, and 4) is pivoted to the upper end of each latch I8. Ihe members 40 have narrow tongues 4I which underlie bentover lugs 42 formed in the adjacent latch I8 which lugs act as stops to limit counterclockwise movement of members 40. A lug 43 formed in each member 40 permits only limitedv clockwise movement of each member by contact with the edge of the latch I8 to which said member is pivoted. A short arm 44 formed in each member 40 has a rivet or boss adapted to engage holes 45 in latch I8 to retain members 40 in the operative position of Fig. l or the alternative inoperative position in which lug 43 engages latch I8. Each member 48 has also an abutment 48 adapted to engage the lug 42 of the next adjacent latch I8 to the one on which said member is pivoted.

Referring to Fig. 4, it will be assumed that the three coupling members 48 shown correspond to the units, tens and hundreds denominational orders ranging from bottom to top respectively of a bank assigned to print data and all are in the position of Fig. 1. If the hundreds type bar now moves to print a 4, for example, its latch I8 will be rocked clockwise (Fig. 1) as described above, to release the hammer for the hundreds type bar. The abutment 48 of the hundreds hammer coupling will, by engagement with the lug 42 of the tens latch I8, rock the latter yclockwise also. The latch I8 of the units type bar will also be operated by the tens latch I8 due to the abutment 48 of the coupling member 40 of the tens latch engaging the lug 42 of the units latch and rocking the units latch I8 clockwise with reference to Fig. 1. Thus, if

`neither of the`units or tens type bars are arrested in one of the numerical positions 1 to 9 or alphabetic positions A to Z, inclusive, the three type bars corresponding to the three coupling members 40 shown in Fig. 4 will print 400." Now, if the upper member 40 (Fig. 4) associated with the hundreds type bar is moved clockwise (Fig. 1) until its lug 43 stops further movement of the said member, the abutment 46 of this member will move to a position below the lug i2 of the tens latch I8. As a result, the moving of the hundreds type bar to the 4 position as before will cause an ineffectual movement of the cou- I8 and neither the tens nor units latches Will be Operated so that only the numeral 4 will be printed.

It will be seen that the coupling members 40 may be selectively set to inactive position to split the solid bank of type bars into arbitrary groups and under these vconditions any type bar assuming the position to present either of the zero type elements or the special character type element will, through members 40, cause zeros to be automatically printed to the right of the operated type bar up to the point where a coupling member 48 is set to inactive position. It follows, therefore, that in accordance with the operation just described, printing from the three lowermost type elements I4 cannot take place unless a higher order type hammer has been tripped and the column splitting latches are properly positioned to transmit the tripping action to the bars whose hooks 2| are disabled. The foregoing is the normal manner of operation of the so-called splitting mechanism.

For certain types of work it may become desirable to effect printing from these lowermost type without requiring the tripping of a higher order position. Such problems arise where alphabetic information, such as names and addresses, is to be printed on a record sheet above columns of amounts which require the use of the column splitting devices to prevent printing of undesirable zeros. An example of such application is shown in Fig. l0. Each printed line represents data perforated on a separate record card. With the type bars positioned in order to correctly control the printing of zeros in the column of figures beneath the address, the members 40 are set to inactive position at the points indicated by the arrows. Thus, the 6" in the first line will not cause the zero to print to its right and in the second line, the 1" in the second column will cause the printing of the zero to its right. With the column splitting devices so positioned, printing would be controlled invariably for each card in accordance with such setup so that if an address card bearing the street number, as indicated in the second line of Fig. 10, controls the setting of the type bars, the zero in the street number would not be printed because of the split at such position. Also with a code number; such as appearing in the third line, the zero to the left of the numeral 6 would not be printed because of the split at this point.

Another case wherein it is desirable to cause printing from the lowermost zero type without regard to the printing of a character in a higher order is where the zero type are used to represent the letter O. Such condition arises in connection with the printing of the Swedish alphabet in which the letter O position is utilized for one of the special characters in the Swedish alphabet and the zero type position is used to represent the letter O.

Referring now to Fig. 1, the mechanism which comprises the improvements of the present invention will be described. Secured to the shaft 21 (see also Fig. 5) is an arm 50 which at its free end supports a rod 5I. To this rod is secured a pawl 52 and a cam member 53. 'I'he pawl 52 lies in the plane of a member 54 which is loosely mounted on shaft 21 and which has a notch 55 therein.A 'I'he cam member 53 rides on a pin 56 in one end of a link 51 which is pivoted at 58. 'Ihe link 51 normally occupies the position shown in Fig. 1 and as the shaft 21 rocks, carrying with it the arm 50 and rod 5I, the camming element 53 slides along the pin 56. If the link 51 is rocked from the position aimais of Fig. 1 to that of Fig. 2, it will cause rocking of cam member 59 and rod 5I to lower the pawl 52 into the notch 55 of member 54 so that upon the next clockwise rocking of shaft 21, the pawl .'i2v will engage the edge of notch 55 and cause clockwise rotation of the member 54. The member 54 is provided with an extending arm 59 at whose extremity is pivoted a bail 68 which extends across along the left edges of the latches I8. 'Ihe arm 59 and the bail 66 form a toggle which, as arm 59 moves clockwise, tends to straighten as the bail is guided along the fixed plate 6l and, due to. such movement, the bail will engage and rock all of the hammer latches I8 to release all of the type hammers I1.

In this manner, whenever link 51 is rocked counterclockwise, all of the hammers l1 will be tripped and printing will take place from whatever type elements may be presented to the printing line regardless of the prior setting of the column splitting members 4l.

The rocking of link 51 is controlledfrom a special perforation which is made in each record card for which such universal tripping of the latches is desired. More specifically, with reference to Fig. 10, the record cards containing data relating to the address may be punched with a special so-called X hole in a selected column of the card. l'l'he manner in which this special perforation controls the operation of the attachment will now be explained.

In Fig. 8 are shown the analyzing brushes UB and LB which are successively traversed by each record card-and the perforated data thereon sensed to control the operation of the zoning magnets 62 and the type selecting magnets .63, whose conjoint action controls the position of the type elements in the manner fully set forth in the patent referred to. A magnet 64 is provided, which, as will rocking of the link 51 to cause tripping of all the hammers. This magnet is designated as the hammer trip magnet and its energization will take place under control of a special perforation in the .11 index point position of a record card, such as indicated at ,X in Figs. '1 and 8. Upon sensing of this perforation by one of the upper brushes UB, a circuit is completed from line 65, upper contact roller UCR, X perforation, brush UB, wire 66, plug connection 61, pickup winding of a relay R.8cam contacts CFB, timed to close when the X hole is at the brush UB, upper card lever contacts UCL, to line 68. Energization of relay R8 will close its contacts R8a to provide a holding circuit traceable from line 65. wire 69, contacts R8a, upper holding winding of relay R8, cam contacts F22, to line 68. As indicated in Fig. 8, this holding circuit will be maintained throughout the remainder of the cycle and during the first half of the next following cycle, during which the record card having the X perforation will traverse the lower brushes LB. during which time the data perforations will be sensed by these brushes to position the type carriers. Energization of relay R8 will also cause closure of its contacts R8c; and if switch 18 is in its full line position, a circuit will be completed during the next cycle through cam contacts CFM which extends from line 65 through cam contacts CFI4, relay contacts Rc, switch 10, hammer trip magnet 64, to line 6.6. In this manner, record cards containing the special X perforation will cause tripping of all the hammers to print from all able from line 65,

be explained, controls the means and a second the type bars which may have been positioned.

If switch is in its dotted line position, the operation would be reversed that is, the hammer trip magnets 64 will be energized each cycle when cam contacts CFI4 close, the circuit being tracecontacts CFI4, normally closed relay contacts RBb, switch 10, hammer trip magnet 64, to line 68. In this case. the energization of relay R8 in response to the sensing of an X hole will cause opening of contacts R8b and the operation of the hammer trip magnet will be suppressed for cards having this perforation.

The right hand end of link 51 (Figs. 1 and 3) has pin and slot connection with a link 1l which is pivoted at 12 and whose opposite end has connection with a vertical link 13 whose lower end is connected to an arm 14 normally held in the position shown in Fig. 3 by the armature 15 of the magnet 64. Arm 14 is pivoted on a stud 16` on which is also pivoted a bell crank 11 having a pin 18 underlying the arm 14. The lower arm of the bell crank lies in the path of the roller 19l on arm 80. Arm 66 is part of the linkage controlled by the complementary cams 8| which serve to reciprocate the type bars once each cycle of the machine and during the operation, roller 19 causes counterciockwise rocking of bell crank 11 to raise arm 14 slightly away from armature 15. It is at this time that magnet 64 may be energized and if energization takes place, arm 14 will be permitted tomove in a clockwise direction and rocking of link 51 will consequently take place.

While there has been shown and described and pointed out the fundamental novel features of the invention as applied to a single modification, it will be understood that various omissions and substitutions and changes in the form and details'of the device illustrated and in its operation may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention. It is the intention therefore to be limited only as indicated by the scope of the following claims.

What is claimed is as follows:

1. In a printing machine having a plurality of positionable type carriers, printing hammers, one for each carrier, an actuator, means con- `trolled by each carrier for causing said actuator to trip the related hammer when the carrier is in certain positions and for preventing tripping by said actuator when the carrier is in other positions, in combination with record controlled actuator controlled thereby for causing tripping of said hammers when the carriers are in any printing position.

2. In a record controlled printing machine, a plurality of type carriers positionable to present signicant digits and zeros to the printing line, printing hammers and latches therefor, an actuator means controlled by said carriers for connecting said latches to said actuator to triptheir related hammer latches only when significant' digits are presented to the printing line, settable connections between said hammer latches for causing a tripped latch to trip a selected number of adjacent latches whose related carriers are positioned to present zeros to the printing line, a second actuator and auxiliary means controlled by a special perforation in a record card for causing said second actuator to effect direct tripping of all the hammer latches irrespective of the positioning of their related carriers and independently of said first named actuator.

ALVIN E. GRAY. 

